UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau addresses the Cal Student Senate, as well as other students and attendees, in the Berdahl Room of Stanley Hall in Berkeley, Calif., on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2011.
Ran on: 12-09-2011
UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau stands before a meeting of students on Wednesday, but was not able to speak.

Photo: Dylan Entelis, The Chronicle

UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau addresses the Cal Student...

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Yvette Felarca (left) interrupts UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau as he addresses the Cal Student Senate, as well as other students and attendees, in the Berdahl Room of Stanley Hall in Berkeley, Calif., on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2011.

Photo: Dylan Entelis, The Chronicle

Yvette Felarca (left) interrupts UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert...

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Yvette Felarca (center), who identified herself as student and former member of the ASUC, riles protesters after UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau's address to the Cal Student Senate in the Berdahl Room of Stanley Hall in Berkeley, Calif., on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2011. Felarca's actions inspired loud interruptions by assembled protesters, and ultimately led to Chancellor Birgeneau abandoning his address.

Photo: Dylan Entelis, The Chronicle

Yvette Felarca (center), who identified herself as student and...

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The ASUC Senators left the meeting after UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau was interrupted by protesters in the Berdahl Room of Stanley Hall in Berkeley, Calif., on Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2011. After being interrupted repeatedly, Birgeneau abruptly ended his address.

It's a precarious moment for the chancellor of UC Berkeley, one of the world's great universities.

Chancellor Robert Birgeneau was in Asia on university business Nov. 9, when an Occupy Cal protest became a symbol of police brutality through videos that went viral. He has since been sued by students, chastised by faculty and, on Wednesday evening, shouted down by protesters calling for his resignation as he tried to address a student meeting.

"Chancellor Birgeneau, you need to leave Berkeley!" a woman in the audience yelled, interrupting the chancellor's talk just as he described efforts to enrich the campus with more out-of-state enrollments. "Students have a right to protest on our campus!"

To the dismay of student leaders who had invited Birgeneau to the meeting of the Associated Students of the University of California - and of other students who had submitted questions for the chancellor - several hecklers refused to let Birgeneau continue. His staff whisked him away.

His talk had focused on campus finances, which he said are not as bad at Berkeley as elsewhere in the UC system thanks to "clever investments" and belt-tightening. He had said at the outset that he would not discuss the issue foremost on everyone's mind - police use of force against peaceful protests - because he is being sued over it.

On Nov. 29, two dozen students and other protesters represented by the group By Any Means Necessary sued Birgeneau, campus leaders and law enforcement in federal court, claiming that police used excessive and unjustified force during last month's protest.

Police tactics

Videos revealed police in riot gear jabbing students with clubs and yanking them by their hair as hundreds of protesters linked arms to prevent officers from dismantling tents they had erected to protest rising tuition and the UC regents' handling of the university's financial crisis. Students have also said police kicked them and bruised them badly. One student said officers broke his rib.

Birgeneau is being widely criticized for allowing such a forceful response to student activism, especially because it wasn't the first time. Two years ago, campus police and the administration bungled their handling of a daylong protest over soaring tuition during which students seized the English building, Wheeler Hall, an internal review concluded. That report suggested procedural changes to ensure a peaceful and well-coordinated response to future protests, an approach that remained elusive on Nov. 9.

"I'm extraordinarily disturbed that these events happened. I apologized once, and I apologize again," Birgeneau told nearly 400 members of the Faculty Senate on Nov. 28. "As chancellor I take full responsibility for what occurred."

The faculty had four resolutions before them, all focused on Birgeneau's handling of the Nov. 9 demonstrations. One would alert the chancellor that the incident "has greatly diminished confidence in the campus leadership." Another condemned the authorization of "violent responses to nonviolent protests." A third called on the chancellor to explain his decision to allow forceful police tactics. The fourth demanded a formal apology.

And all called on Birgeneau to take steps to avoid future violence.

The phone call

Before the vote, Birgeneau told the faculty he had instructed police not to use tear gas or pepper spray. Still, Birgeneau said, he received a call in Shanghai saying "things had gone very wrong."

The faculty then voted 336-to-34 to approve all four resolutions.

"It should not be taken as a general condemnation about Birgeneau," said Bob Jacobsen, chairman of the Faculty Senate. "Some think he's doing a great job. Some do not.

"Nov. 9 is the flash point."

It's a huge flash point for students, too.

After the chancellor left the students' meeting Wednesday night, student leaders approved a resolution thanking him for coming, and asking him to respond to 12 questions, many of which implied that students believe Birgeneau excludes them from key decisions.

Birgeneau will respond to the questions "as time permits," his spokeswoman said.